Change a Girl's Life Through Microentrepreneurship

Laura is a single mother who lives in Muea, a community in the Fako Division. She used to run a business in Douala where she sold ladies' shoes and was also involved in the MTN Mobile money business. She had a capital of ($821) 500,000 FRS and could make an average monthly profit of ($164) 100,000 FRS. Unfortunately, her shop caught fire after she had recently bought new items and she had no money left. This incident forced her to relocate to Buea with the help of her family and friends.

In Buea, life was extremely challenging for Laura, coupled with her sick mother, and her daughter. She had to go back to doing mobile money business to make ends meet. She only had a capital of ($82) 50,000 FRS, which limited her business, and she only made a profit of ($16) 10,000 FRS per month. This amount was not enough to pay their bills.

Fortunately, Laura was identified by our social worker during a door to door identification process, selected, trained, and given a first-level grant of ($93) 57000 FRS. She took this money and found a space on the road to open a small provision store and continued with the Momo business. From this, she was able to play her daily "Njangi" of ($3) 2000 FRS, which she added to her business. After receiving her second-level grants, she was able to expand her business, and it's now moving well. She now has a capital of ($503) 360,000FRS and makes an average monthly profit of ($49) 30,000FRS.

"I am grateful to Reach Out and her partners for the training and monthly coaching sessions, which have helped me to stay in business and not give up. The grant that I received has helped me to grow my business quickly, and also enabled me to take care of my sick mother and daughter without any stress."